Page:Works of Charles Dickens, ed. Lang - Volume 8.djvu/608

 NOTES ON DOMBEY AND SON.

CHAPTER I. "A fishy old eye."

We still see, in curiosity shops, these miniatures of eyes, fishy or otherwise. Detached eyes of George IV., when Prince Regent, and Mrs. Fitzherbert, occasionally occur.

"A pecuniary Duke of York."

Miss Tox means a pecunions Duke. This prince's statue, Sydney Smith said, ought to be cast "in æs alienum."

CHAPTER II. "These here railroads."

The coaching-days, so dear to Dickens, are ending in Dombey.

CHAPTER VII. The sedan chair, and Miss Tox's furniture, "of the powdered-head and pig-tail period," had become lumber in 1846. In 1897 they are treasures generically known as " Chippendale." CHAPTER X. "We roasted the new fellows."

Persons of strong nerves may read about these diversions of the military schools, at a date more recent than the Major's youth, in Mr. James Payn's Foster Brothers.

END OF VOL. I.